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Wednesday, 30 August 2017

For
0.4.12 I'll be using the custom-scene system to add an actual scene
to the game itself and writing a series of step-by-step blog posts
to show how that's done.

Before
I start posting those, I think that I should probably talk about
something that's a bit of an "elephant in the room": my
terrible record at replying to people.

When
Newlife began I answered almost every forum post, PM and blog
comment. As more people played it, I started receiving more and more
feedback, and my efforts to reply to everyone fell more and more
behind.

Part
of this is a bit of a character flaw I have. I'm perhaps not the most
outgoing of people and I especially don't relish writing posts that
might make someone unhappy.

The
bulk of my backlog involves requests for additions to Newlife,
especially the grey-area ones where the request is something that
reasonably could be added, but that isn't part of my core plan and I
therefore don't feel comfortable making a binding promise about.

I
can't reply with a yes because I get change requests through much
faster than I can add content so it's simply impossible to do
everything. I don't want to reply with a no because that makes me
feel bad, especially when there's a chance their request might make
it in at some point in the future. Replying "maybe" feels a
bit like a lame cop-out. So, I just ignore the issue and let it
languish for ages on my "to-reply" list.

What's
worse, I often let this stop me answering people whose posts I could
easily respond to. If there's a post earlier in a forum thread that I
don't have a reply for then I feel like it needs to be handled first,
and so later posts stay in purgatory until I come up with a proper
reply.

I
was beating myself up a bit over this a while back, when I came to an
epiphany: when someone posts a change request for Newlife they aren't
really asking for a personal reply to their post. What they actually
want is just for me to read their request and consider implementing
it.

So,
I'm going to officially put an end to the "I attempt to reply to
everyone" policy. Here's my new one:

First,
I want to be clear: I do like it when people post and make
suggestions. You should absolutely do so if you have an idea you
think I should read. Just because I can't reply to everyone doesn't
mean I don't like you posting!

Posts
with change requests usually will not get a reply unless it's trivial
to decide on a yes or no answer. However, I will read them and
consider adding the request to the todo list. If I implement it then
I'll make an attempt to credit whoever made the suggestion in the
changelog. I might sometimes miss someone, but I'll do my best.

The
same goes for bugfixes that don't need follow-up questions to fix. I
might post a quick "thanks" comment, but I'm not going to
feel obligated to do so. Again, people who report bugs that get fixed
will generally be credited in the changelog. If you aren't a patron
and you've found a bug that needed to get solved then you can PM me
(on the forum where you originally reported the bug so I know it's
you and not some credit-stealing internet joker) and I'll hook you up
with the patreon version as a reward. This only applies to bugs and
not change requests: for the latter the reward of seeing your desired
content in the game should be enough!

Change
requests phrased as rhetorical questions will usually get treated the
same. E.g. "Will this game ever have x?"

Some
players might want an answer because they're considering supporting
the game on Patreon on the condition that it'll at some point include
their favourite content. Do not do this.

My
view of Newlife on Patreon is that you should only support the game
if you enjoy it in its current state and want development to keep
going, not because you're hoping it might become a game you'll enjoy
in the future. I'm proud of never having gone a month without
releasing an update, but nevertheless, like any single-person project
Newlife is just a serious injury or bullshit anti-porn law away from
cancellation or "indefinite hiatus". If you're supporting
the game then you should feel that even if it was cancelled tomorrow
you'd still have got a game you enjoyed playing out of my time
developing it.

On
a personal note, I also don't like the pressure of feeling that there
are patrons who won't have liked the game unless it ends up with
specific content. My request: only support the game based on how it
is at the moment, not on how it might become in the future.

So,
that's the new plan for communications. As for the blog, I'll be
posting a lot more soon: not only is there the user-submissions stuff
but I'll also be running the next PMW vote in September, and I also
have a half-written post about nonconsent content to finish up.

Tuesday, 29 August 2017

Hello
everyone! Newlife 0.4.11 has been released.
Early-access Patrons can find it in the creations section here. The changelog is below.The previous version would normally go public at this point. However, 0.4.10 was actually made public a while back so there's no need for changes there. You can download it using the links on the right-hand side of the blog. The public version's changelog is here.As usual, saved files & templates from older versions probably won't work with newer ones. For
new players - just use one of the links to the right to get a zipfile containing Newlife. Once unzipped, you'll see a folder containing .jar and .exe files. Either one of these will run the game.For
either version you'll need to have Java installed. A lot of programs
use Java so you might well already have it. If the jar shows up as an
unrecognised file type, then you probably don't. In that case you can
get it from http://www.java.com/. The
exe should tell you if you don't have the right version on your
computer, but you'll still need to install java to run the game.There's a guide for new players here which includes some troubleshooting tips for installation & downloading.

This verson adds the game-mechanics around a proper handling of PC infidelity. I'll be working on fleshing out content for it over the next few releases. 0.4.12 will be a small release with just a single scene that I'll make in yaml & velocity as an example for writers - you can expect a series of blog posts soon as I work through it step-by-step. Once that's released the following version will add more cheating content. I'll also be doing a PMW release soon - I'll be posting early next month on Patreon to gather suggestions from voters.Changelog for 0.4.11:

Major
changes & additions:

Improved handling of the player-character cheating, including a new
scene where your infidelity is discovered.

The game now stores more of the pc's sexual and cheating history for
each NPC. Cheating history will eventually be 'forgotten' after
enough time, and will always be cleared if the PC confesses or gets
confronted about it, to prevent getting caught twice for the same
misdemeanor.

Minor
changes & bugfixes:

Fixes to text issues. Thanks to
OrangeJuice, Max Mustermann and Der Kittin Kampf for reporting some
of these.

Fixed a bug with the custom scene
transition reported by lostTrout.

Added a new trait: cunning. This
stops the player being discovered cheating (unless her lover
confesses, which will be added in later versions). It also stops the
perverted client's wife from catching them together. The player can
still choose to reveal her infidelity voluntarily.

Modified some conditions for the
'express your uncertainty' makeout action. I think it was Max
Mustermann who reported some issues with these – thank you!

Rewrote the “request condom”
makeout action with some changes to the logic and a more varied
range of NPC replies – no longer will abusive jerks “kiss you
gently” when they wear one because they have the conscientious
trait!.

Some rewriting of the cowgirl “ask
him to come inside” action text, which had some issues with e.g.
directly quoted text. I also updated it to handle the as-yet
not-fully-implemented baby-crazy trait, although that won't be visible in play until the trait is available.

The player can no longer ask an NPC
to remove a condom if they were the one who asked him to wear it in
the first place.

Reworked how the hair-trigger and
hard-to-please traits work which should resolve some peculiar
interactions they had with other game systems. The traits will
probably have larger gameplay effects now, in some cases
significantly larger.

Following a suggestion from Karanya,
added a bit of extra text that will sometimes appear during the
orgasm-on-breasts ending of the oral scene.

Added simple game-mechanics effects
for the trying-for-baby relationship status, although most text
hasn't been looked into to see if it needs changes and it's only
accessible via a few special scenes. This status is currently only
available in situations where it's locked-in, so there's no action
to remove it (except for having a baby). This also means that the
various “have babies” vows now have an actual gameplay effect if
activated before marriage.

Changes
for user-submitted content:

Improved tracking of the PC's sexual
history with male NPCs. This may be useful in writing dialogue or
text that hinges on what things they've done together. See the male
NPC hasDoneSexualActivity and hasDoneCheatingActivity methods. This
should also be set when the PC does an appropriate action in your
scene: use addSexualActivity for this.

Added the performMakeoutAction method
to male NPCs. This lets writers access Newlife's standard set of
makeout actions, used in makeout scenes and also several others that
involve an NPC feeling up the player.

Added the getBreastsDesc() method to
female NPCs. This is identical to the PC's method. Thanks to Drgong
for highlighting this omission.

Added the ability to add or remove PC
traits as requested by Eulexia. This is intended for testing
purposes only. For instance, you could add the not-fully-implemented
baby_crazy trait to test your scene against it before it gets
properly added.

Added various methods requested by
writers – I haven't kept detailed notes, but if I said I'd add
something in the discord then it's probably there.

The custom scene testing scene will
now clear all scene flags when returning to it from a sub-scene.
This means that you can use returnToParent to test the same scene
repeatedly without previous runs interfering with the state of later
attempts.

Added a new hidden Stat (“TEST_STAT”)
for use when writers will need a new stat for their scenes. That way
you can test with this and I'd replace it with the proper one when
your scene gets integrated into the game.

Thursday, 10 August 2017

Normally
the public version of Newlife is always a release behind the Patreon
version. However, after consulting with my patrons we've decided to
make an exception this time. As such, 0.4.10 is now public – you
can download it from the links to the right as usual. The changelog
is here.

The
main change for 0.4.10 was support for user submissions. Making this
public now means any non-patrons who are interested in writing for
the game can start their scenes earlier, and that'll benefit everyone
– patron or otherwise.

If
you're a public-version player and you submit a scene that I add to
the game then make sure to let me know that you aren't on the patreon
version – it wouldn't be fair for you to have to wait to see your
own scene in the game, so I'll PM you the early-access version.

To
see the user submissions documentation go to the
additional_scenes/documentation folder in the Newlife release.

If
you have questions about Newlife submissions or want to get feedback
on an idea for a scene then a good starting point is the Newlife Discord,
kindly set up by the awesome FutureSight.